Was James Gandolfini Jewish?

He was such a powerful acting persona, sure we'd like to claim him as a member of the tribe. But no James Gandolfini was not a Jew. Shockingly, he passed away at age 51. He was a superlative actor who made his biggest hit in the Sopranos on HBO, considered by many critics to be the greatest series of its kind of all time.

The Times tells about him:

James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. was born in Westwood, N.J., on Sept. 18, 1961. His father was an Italian immigrant who held a number of jobs, including janitor, bricklayer and mason. His mother, Santa, was a high school cafeteria chef.

He attended Park Ridge High School and Rutgers University, graduating in 1983 with a degree in communications. He drove a delivery truck, managed nightclubs and tended bar in Manhattan before becoming interested in acting at age 25, when a friend took him to an acting class.

Gandolfini's father worked as the head custodian at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey, and we assume the family was Catholic.

Haaretz wrote about his characters' Jewish links. Gandolfini  made a humorous Israeli ad for yes.co.il.

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Happy Mishna Day

On this day in history the first Mishna was printed. Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino, the first member of the distinguished family of printers, completed publication of the work in 1492.

From Ha`aretz by David B. Green:

On May 8, 1492, Joshua Solomon ben Israel Nathan Soncino completed publication of what is believed to be the first printed edition of the Mishna. The text is accompanied by Maimonides’ commentary on the Mishna, in Hebrew translation.

Joshua Solomon Soncino (died 1493) was the first member of the distinguished Soncino family of printers to publish a book, a tractate of the Talmud (Berakhot), which he created in 1484. (Johannes Gutenberg had produced his first block-printed Bible in 1455.) The family took its name from the Italian town of Soncino, in northern Italy, east of Milan, where it lived for some time, but it could trace its origins to a German Jew called Moses of Speyer, in the 14th century.

The family moved its press around frequently, depending on the political situation it encountered, so that Soncino was just one of its homes. For example, Joshua Solomon Soncino was based in Soncino from 1483 to 1488 and in Naples from 1490 to 1492, when the Mishna was published. That year, many Jews expelled from Spain found a refuge in Naples, whereas by 1495, Naples was under French control, and things were far less comfortable for Jews. By 1510, Spain had conquered the city, and began expelling the Jews outright. By then, however, the Soncino press was operating out of Pesaro, to the southeast, on the Adriatic coast.

The most prolific and accomplished member of the family was Gershom ben Moses Soncino (died in 1534), the nephew of Joshua Solomon. He set up a press in Thessaloniki in 1527, and another in Istanbul three years later. Gershom published more than 100 different volumes, branching out from Hebrew into Greek, Latin and Italian. The last book produced by the family was issued in Cairo in 1557.

The Mishna comprises part of the book we know today as the Talmud. It is a collection of rabbinic commentaries and explications of the commandments as delineated in the Torah, and was redacted (edited) early in the 3rd century C.E., by Rabbi Judah Hanasi. Its six “orders” break down into 63 tractates that organize the commandments according to topic, for example Sabbath or the laws related to sacrifices in the Temple.

During the three centuries that followed the completion of the Mishna, the rabbis supplemented the Mishnaic text with additional commentaries. These commentaries constitute the Gemara. Together the Mishna and the Gemara make up the Talmud, which was edited into two versions, the Jerusalem -- or Palestinian -- Talmud, finalized around the year 400, and the more definitive Babylonian Talmud, completed about a century later.

The 1492 Soncino Mishna also contained the commentary of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, who lived 1135 to 1204. The Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna was composed in Judeo-Arabic, and finished in 1168. In it, he takes into account not only the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, but also the Tosefta and midrashic works.

The Soncino Naples edition of the Mishna was followed by a Prague version, edited by Yom Tov Lipman Heller, with his own commentaries, in 1614-17. But the basis for most Mishnaic study today is the Romm publishing house edition, published in Vilna in 13 volumes in 1908.

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Is Yair Lapid Jewish?

Yes Israeli politician Yair Lapid is a Jew. David Remnick wrote about him in New Yorker, and evaluated his performance in the 2013 parliamentary election, "...the great surprise was the second-place finisher, a television celebrity and political novice named Yair Lapid, who leads a brand new—but impressively greased—centrist party called Yesh Atid (“There is a Future”). Lapid appealed largely to young, middle-class, secular voters, and he concentrated mainly on social issues like education and housing and on stripping the ultra-Orthodox of their state subsidies and military exemptions. Facebook, Twitter, and his square-jawed, salt-and-pepper-hair glamour were Lapid’s tools..."

Remnick shared more about Lapid in that essay:

Lapid resigned from Channel 2 only a year ago, and is one of the most famous people in Israel—a television star with a “Mr. Israel” image. He is bluff, cocky, handsome, and had no problem when it came to name recognition. When he was hosting a show named for him, he would ask his guests a signature question: “What is Israel to you?”

As one Haaretz reporter, Asher Schechter, wrote sarcastically last month, Lapid is a prince of Tel Aviv privilege, a “notorious wannabe,” a cigar-smoking, product-wearing TV star. He has been mocked for his modest education, his uncertain grasp of the facts—but “it’s easy to make fun of Yair Lapid.”

Lapid is the son of Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, a famous and pugnacious journalist who went on to head the Shinui Party (a party devoted to secularism and the free market), and the playwright and author Shulamit Lapid. He had learning disabilities as a child and dropped out of high school. Nevertheless, he built a career in his parents’ mold, writing for the newspapers Maariv and Yediot Ahronoth. His subjects were generally light; when he wrote politically, he kept it simple. In the nineties, he starred in a romantic comedy called “The Singing of the Siren,” in which he played the cad, and then made a career on television. He wrote a TV series called “War Room.”

Above all, he was an on-air presence, a star in every living room. “During his eight-year tenure hosting the most-watched talk show in Israel, Lapid became more than just a media personality and more than just a columnist,” Schechter wrote. “On air, he transformed into an icon.… He wanted to be a symbol, and to that end he cultivated his boyish, all-Israeli image.” One of the rewards of television stardom was a web of connections, friendships with leading bankers and entrepreneurs. He may play a middle-class hero on television and in politics, but he is a man of the Tel Aviv bubble, the coastal secular élite.

Yair Lapid’s emphasis on the secular nature of Zionism and Israel itself is inherited from his father and clearly a reaction to the rise of the religious nationalists, like Bennett, who want to re-define Zionism in the mold of settler ideology. Lapid told the Associated Press, “I don’t want a country that is defined by religion. I don’t want a country that is defined by the separation of groups and sectors.” Read more.

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Talmud: Try to swim 100 laps every day

The Tosefta quotes Rabbi Meir saying that everyone should strive to recite 100 blessings each day. It then goes on to explain how one can do this.

Blessings are berakhot ברכות in Hebrew. In modern Hebrew the laps that one swims in a pool are called berechot בריכות.

I playfully read the Talmud such: Don't say berakhot, say berechot.

And so I have my Talmudic encouragement to swim 100 laps a day. On occasion I get to to that goal.

Here are a few of my reflections of the past on swimming...

Some time ago, JTA reported that "Liberal men take the plunge into ritual immersion, slowly" -- Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish men were going to mikvah and finding it meaningful. Sue Fishkoff wondered why and so did I.

She ended her article with a quote from mikvah user and attorney Merrill Hassenfeld, “We’re always doing things for others, why don’t we set aside time to go to the mikvah?” he asked. “It prepares us to go out into the world and start yelling and screaming again.” (A greater non-sequiteur has never been uttered.)

Now, my confession. I am a pool addict. I am a serious lap swimmer. Since 1982 my aim has been to try to swim a mile of laps every day. Finding the time. Finding a pool. Finding the energy. Not easy.

When I come out of my pool, I find that I feel healthier, more centered and completely relaxed. Swimming a mile in around 30 minutes is hard, aerobic work. That is what I have to invest to get results from my "mikvah" experience. I'm happy to hear that others can achieve their own "incredible" positive benefits from splashing around in a state of heightened imagination.

I have sought out pools to swim my laps all over the world. My most favorite pool was the old Gordon Pool on Tel Aviv beach near the Sheraton, pictured from a few years ago.

It was one of the wonders of the world. Each night they emptied the entire 50 meter pool, cleaned it and refilled it from underground saltwater wells 120 meters below. The pool opened at 5 AM at 24 degrees, which was just fine for us serious lap swimmers.

Unfortunately, the Gordon pool was leveled in 2008 without warning by the city of Tel Aviv. They rebuilt and reopened it as a more modern facility. I swam there in 2011.

[repost in part from 5/20/09]

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Haaretz: Is Rick Santorum an Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew?

No, not yet. Rick Santorum is not an Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jew. He is not Jewish. He is an American Catholic politician. 

A political analyst for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has a biting (a bit tongue-in-cheek) take on Santorum's mix of religion and politics.

With a beard and a shtreimel, Santorum would be perfect for an Israeli ultra-Orthodox party

The battle over contraception and other 'culture wars' now raging in American presidential politics can make an Israeli feel right at home.
By Chemi Shalev

"Hadarat nashim", the exclusion of women, is the catchphrase that encompasses all of the recent manifestations in Israel of the attempts to distance females from sitting at the front of the bus, singing in military ceremonies, publicly accepting prizes, appearing on public billboards and what not. It's what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was talking about a few months ago when she reportedly told the Saban Forum in Washington that such things remind her of Iran.

Last week, in yet another sign of the close affinity of Republicans with Israel, "hadarat nashim" crossed the Atlantic and reached the U.S. Congress.

Representative Darrel Issa summoned an all-male panel – including an Orthodox rabbi of impeccable pedigree, Yeshiva University's Meir Soloveichik - to testify before his House Oversight Committee on the Catholic confrontation with the Administration over financing contraception for employees.

Issa refused to allow third year Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke to testify before his committee, thus providing Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with a perfect comeback line to Clinton, who had cited Rosa Parks, the famous African-American civil rights hero, in her critical remarks about Israel in November. "At least in the Knesset, we allow women to testify," Lieberman might say.

Though there is clearly "a difference of sky and earth", as the Hebrew saying goes, between the U.S. and Israel, America's so-called "culture wars", such as those that have erupted in presidential politics in recent weeks, can sometimes make an Israeli feel right at home. The Republican battle cry that the Obama Administration is waging a "war on religion", for example, is standard operating procedure for Israel's ultra-Orthodox political parties. Hardly a day goes by without an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, leader or pundit circling the wagons and drumming up support by claiming that one secular politician or another – especially if his last name is Lapid - is waging a "war on Judaism" or "war on the haredim". And in recent days, if you close your eyes, listen to his words and conjure him with a beard and a traditional Orthodox shtreimel (fur hat) on his head, one might easily cast Republican frontrunner Rich Santorum as a leader of an Israeli ultra-Orthodox party rather than the devout Catholic that he is.

Santorum's views on contraception (wrong), abortion (never), gay marriage (no different than polygamy), homosexual relations (akin to bestiality, and traditionally punishable by death, according to the Book of Leviticus) are not much different, and, in some cases, perhaps slightly more rigid, than most Haredi politicians in Israel. Santorum's opposition to Federal and State intervention in school education is already being immaculately implemented in Israel's so-called "Independent" school system, in which religious studies are predominant and very little "secular" studies – such as math or the sciences – are allowed to get in the way. Santorum's skepticism about evolution, which he tried to translate into law in 2001 when he was the Senator from Pennsylvania, would be par for the course in ultra-Orthodox circles, where one wouldn't dare to mention the name Darwin, even in dreams.

On the other hand, and contrary to some of his Republican rivals who champion "states' rights", Santorum sees nothing wrong with federal legislation of "family values", just as Israel's religious parties have relied on Knesset laws to regulate issues ranging from marriage and divorce through working on the Sabbath all the way to pig farming. And Santorum's reference to Obama's "phony theology" is par for the course for haredi politicians who routinely describe Zionism as a "phony religion".

Of course, the critical difference between Israel and America is their drastically different political systems. American presidential candidates, if they are to win elections, have to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, including moderate and mostly secular independents, which means that extreme conservatives such as Barry Goldwater or fanatic liberals such as George McGovern generally lose elections badly. For the same reason, many Republicans are increasingly worried that Santorum might also be too radical to beat Obama in the November elections, (although his increasingly controversial statements in recent days suggest that he's doing whatever he can to make sure that he doesn't get the nomination).

In Israel's proportional system, however, ultra-Orthodox parties don't need to pander to the general public or to bother with formulating policy on such irksome issues as the economy or national security: they can afford to think only of their own narrow constituency and its parochial interests. Given that the two main political blocs, left and right, are always short of an absolute majority, perennially at loggerheads over the "cardinal" issue of peace and territories and wouldn't trust each other if their lives depended on it, they have no choice but to rely on the religious parties to be their coalition partners. Secure in the knowledge that they will always hold the balance of power and be the kingmakers, the religious parties allow their secular colleagues to get on with their business of pretending to make peace or trying to annex the territories, whichever the case maybe, and all they ask for in return is influence, religious laws, autonomy, and enormous amounts of cash that will guarantee their predominance in a few short decades.

What saves America from this imposition of religious edicts in the public sphere is its two-party, winner take all political system. Imagine, though, that America also had a proportional system, with a staunchly social-democratic and dovish Democratic Party on the left and a fanatically free market and hawkish Republican Party on the right, both waging a never-ending political world war on the economy and America's place in the world. Now imagine that between these two poles there is a third party, a single-issue party, made up of Catholic fundamentalists and Protestant Evangelicals and perhaps even a rabbi or two thrown in for good measure, whose main raison d'etre was to eradicate godlessness and instill religiosity in American life.

Of course, the natural alliance of this third party would be with the Republicans, but if the Democrats got more votes, there is no doubt that the two sides would be able to reach an accommodation, with the Democrats being allowed to pursue their policies in exchange for far reaching concessions on abortions, say, or contraception, or religious education. If this doesn't sound plausible to you, it's because you haven't been exposed enough to the absolute cynicism of proportional coalition politics, which can make for the strangest of bedfellows (though not of the type that Santorum finds so offensive).

In any case, even in the current setup, if I were a Republican religious conservative, especially the "Jesus candidate" that Santorum has described, I would urgently dispatch an emissary or two to the courts of some of Israel's ultra-Orthodox rabbis and to the backrooms of their political representatives. If one is going to do battle in the confrontation between church and state - or synagogue and state in this case - one might as well learn from the pros who have been winning at this game for many, many years.

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